Rangers in the Christmas spirit

This is one area where you can never say a bad word about the New York Rangers:

They do good deeds and they have produced some of the great deed-doers.

So today is the mother of all their good-will events, Adam Graves and his annual Toys for Tots drive.

If you are anywhere near MSG today, and if you can afford it, I urge you to buy a toy and bring it (unwrapped) to the Theater lobby between 4 and 7 p.m. (doors open at 3:45 p.m.). Brian Boyle and Derek Boogaard will stop by for an hour at 4; Steve Eminger and Matt Gilroy at 5; and Michael Sauer and Derek Stepan at 6.

The event benefits the U.S. Marines’ Toys for Tots drive … and if you can’t make it, there are plenty of other Toys for Tots events during the holiday season. Try to find one and do something really nice for somebody you’ll never meet. You might be surprised how good it makes you feel.

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The Rangers are also involved in some other events today. Michael Del Zotto is hosting a youth street hockey clinic to start a series of 10 clinics around NYC; Chris Drury and Michal Rozsival are delivering coats and goodie-bags in Harlem as part of the Garden of Dreams coat drive; and Brandon Prust is doing a hockey clinic and autograph session for kids.

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Off-topic a bit, boy, those Super Bowl champion Jets did a lot of talking early in their showdown in Foxboro, didn’t they? Especially LT Lite. I would have loved to watch that game with my buddy Joe Benigno, just for the pure entertainment value.

And did you catch any of the Devils-Penguins game? I didn’t see much, but I did watch John MacLean’s post-game press conference, and I have to say, it’s really, really uncomfortable watching him try to unravel his team’s demise while saying “you know” in every sentence, maybe 50 times or more all together. Ugh.

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Back to hockey for a moment, USA Hockey will announce its preliminary roster for the 2011 junior national team today at 11.

Rick Carpiniello, 26, was born and raised in Harrison and began working in The Journal News' sports department (back when it was The Reporter Dispatch and eight other newspapers) in October of 1977 after a year of covering high school sports as a stringer. In 1978 he began covering the New York Rangers and the National Hockey League. Carpiniello has been writing columns on everything from local sports to the big leagues since 2002.